Watch, Elkington & Co.
Record status
Individual type · partial
Watch, Elkington & Co. is an object recorded by Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum's brief description reads: Electrotype. From the C19th Register: "WATCHCASE.
The orginal, of silver with gilt rims, in the Louvre, is engraved with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden; and the Fall of Eve. The dial-plate is engraved and chased with ornament. French. 16th century. L. 2 in., W. 1 in. Bought of Messrs.…. The museum record gives measurements Height 5.1 cm; Width 2.8 cm; Length 7.4 cm; Depth 2 cm. These details come from the holding museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
The Technology Electrotypes were a by-product of the invention of electroplating (silver plating by electrolysis). ELECTROPLATING: Electricity revolutionised the trade of coating base metal objects with silver. Patented by Elkington and Company in the 1840s, this technique was the fulfilment of a century of research into the effects of electricity on metals. A negatively charged silver bar, suspended in a vat of potassium cyanide, deposited a coating of silver on a positively charged base metal (mostly copper, later nickel-silver) object immersed with it. Electroplated objects were fully formed in base metal before plating. ELECTROGILDING exploited the same technique but used gold bars instead of silver. It was safer than traditional mercury gilding. ELECTROFORMING transferred the metal deposits directly into moulds in the plating vats. When enough metal had been deposited to create a self-supporting object, the mould was removed. Developed by Alexander Parkes, electroforms so accurately mirrored the moulds in which they were created that multiple copies could be created (ELECTROTYPES). The Process During the electrotyping process a mould was taken of the original object. The moulds were made from gutta percha or plaster. Gutta percha was a tree-resin from Malaysia that could be melted and poured onto an object, but would set hard and take a perfect impression. During cooling it could also be manipulated. When the mould set, it was removed from the original object and then…
Physical characteristics
- Dimensions
- Height 5.1 cm; Width 2.8 cm; Length 7.4 cm; Depth 2 cm
Identification
- Museum attribution
- Elkington & Co.
- Museum object name
- Watch
- Museum object number
- REPRO.1888A-446
- Museum system number
- O375180
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm materials, dimensions, maker and wider type against the museum record and a specialist reference.